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Is Paul Ryan Serious About the Deficit?

Several readers took issue with the idea that Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, was serious about the deficit. They pointed out that his budget blueprint doesn’t live up to its billing as a plan that balances the budget.

As Howard Gleckman has written on the TaxVox, the Tax Policy Center’s blog, “Ryan’s plan generates much less revenue than he projects.” Paul Krugman has also found fault with the Ryan plan.

I agree with a fair amount of the criticism. To the extent that Mr. Ryan has provided details about his proposed tax system, it does not seem to raise as much revenue as necessary.

Yet his blueprint is still vastly more detailed and credible than the pledge that other Congressional Republicans recently released. The pledge contains virtually no details on cutting spending. The Ryan plan would, as the Congressional Budget Office found:

* Reduce Social Security benefits for people now younger than 55.
* “Eliminate the income and payroll tax exclusions for employment-based health insurance.”
* Replace the current Medicare system for people now under 55 with a voucher system providing significantly less generous benefits than are currently planned.

Mr. Ryan’s plan may not balance the budget. But it’s an actual plan, with specific ideas for cutting spending and reducing the deficit. These details allow people to have an honest debate about the benefits and drawbacks of his proposal. That’s a lot more than can be said about the pledge, which calls for specific tax cuts and either small or unspecified spending cuts and then claims to be fiscally responsible.

One more postscript to this week’s column: A couple of other readers pointed out that privatizing the post office would not save the government any money. The post office is already self-sufficient. And, I should add, it’s pretty impressive. You can send a letter from anywhere in the country to anywhere else, with a high degree of reliability, for 44 cents. Not bad at all.

The Affordable Care Act imposes economic burdens that are the equivalent of taxes, an economist writes. Read more…

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Economics doesn't have to be complicated. It is the study of our lives — our jobs, our homes, our families and the little decisions we face every day. Here at Economix, journalists and economists analyze the news and use economics as a framework for thinking about the world. We welcome feedback, at economix@nytimes.com.